Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Rapturous Raunchfest

This Is the End Final Cut Score 88%

For those of you who cherish Frank Darabont's cinematic treatment of The Mist but wish it had a dash more humor attached to its darker-than-black denouement comes This Is the End, a rapturously-riotous, celeb-skewering raunchfest that shares the same trapped-together-waiting-out-the-Apocalypse tale but with a slightly less depressing conclusion.

Sporting their real-life personas throughout, Seth Rogen and his Knocked Up buddy Jay Baruchel swing by James Franco's Hollywood Hills crib for Oz's blowout swarming with a slew of B-listers superstars — a coked-up Michael Cera scoring both serious laughs and a light-pole impaling.
Amidst the raucous revelry, all hell breaks loose — literally. Judgement day hits LA with the Bible-obeying folk sucked up into the sky via tractor beams, the sinners left behind to fend for themselves, tumbling into bottomless chasms and fleeing from bloodthirsty beasts.

The "thespians" retreat en masse to Franco's ultra-modern mansion with a one-earring-wearing Jonah Hill, a "Take Yo Panties Off!!!" t-shirted Craig Robinson and a slovenly-mannered Danny McBride rounding out the six-pack of stoners.

As the sextet attempt to ride out Armageddon, the crudities fly: the guys reel off a comedy routine about rape, McBride waxes poetic about semen and a heaping of homosexual slurs fill Franco's fortress — for the easily offended this ain't. But claiming it's anything aside from straight-up hilarious is more ridiculous than the ginormous-genitalia-adorned devil rampaging around the SoCal wasteland.

Does it stall out in spots? The group's video confessionals fall flat and their shot-with-a-camcorder sequel to Pineapple Express fizzles. Though if it's soda-spitting laughs you seek with your beheadings, This Is the End is your flick. Who with a sane mind would argue against a song-and-dance finale featuring the Backstreet Boys?

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It was many moons ago in a darkened theater that my love of cinema took root as I snuck in to see my first R-rated film, Blade Runner. The futuristic vision that Ridley Scott unleashed on the screen was simply soul-expanding — spiritual even. From that moment, my mission to have that kind of magic strike again began in earnest. My hope is to be able to shine a light on films that may just have that kind of effect on you — films that may sometimes be lesser known, but not lesser in impact.&nbsp—EW